Confusion over the recent approval of federal money for an affordable housing project in Olathe brought a crowd of commenters to the county commission Thursday, many of them complaining about a lack of transparency and conflicting information.

The comments prompted commissioners to briefly reconsider their approval from last week of the Habitat Olathe Pathway proposal, which calls for a neighborhood of affordably priced homes at 159th Street and Blackbob Road built by Habitat for Humanity.

“This has been a horrible, horrible misstep,” said Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara, who proposed Thursday’s reconsideration motion. “This could have been an exciting project if the community had been involved in the planning, but now many of us have a bad taste in our mouths.”

O’Hara asked the commission to step back and wait until more approval comes from the city of Olathe.

However, the majority of commissioners stood by their support, and O’Hara’s motion failed 5-2. Commissioner Michael Ashcraft was the other dissenting vote.

The board approved federal funds for the Habitat project

The project, which would be unique in Johnson County if it is built, depends on partnerships from Habitat for Humanity, the city of Olathe and the commission.

The homes would be offered to qualifying people at below-market prices in perpetuity because of an arrangement using a land trust.

The county had approved spending $950,000 in federal COVID-19 relief money toward streets and infrastructure improvements for the development.

Commissioners approved it unanimously last week praising it as an innovative way to start to address the county’s lack of affordable living space.

It was part of a larger package of moves aimed at addressing housing affordability in the Kansas City metro’s wealthiest county, where the average home resale price in recent years has ballooned to nearly half a million dollars.

Neighboring residents raised concerns

At Thursday’s meeting, a larger-than-usual crowd of commenters showed up on a variety of issues, but many concerning the Habitat proposal.

Some contended that the project would end up being larger than the 20 homes discussed a week ago. O’Hara and others pointed to a document that showed 38 homes were part of the development.

Lindsay Hicks, President and CEO of Habitat for Humanity, confirmed the existence of the document to the Post after the public comments Thursday but insisted it was simply a previous concept for the project that was being recirculated.

“This is a single-family home project for 20 homes,” Hicks said. “We’re excited to see it moving forward and we are happy to be here engaging residents in the process.”

Peg Trent, the board’s legal counsel, acknowledged that there was nothing in the board’s previous action that would limit the project to 20 homes, drawing gasps from onlookers.

Notification of nearby neighborhoods was another issue.

Some commenters at the meeting and on social media said such a project shouldn’t have been allowed without alerting neighbors and holding neighborhood meetings first.

Some neighboring residents said they feared they’d missed their chance to be included in the discussions before the project is built.

Where is Olathe at in the process?

Last week, when the question of neighborhood notification was raised, Hicks with Habitat for Humanity said most of the talks had so far been with churches and other groups that might be interested in being involved, and that neighborhood meetings would come later.

Also at last week’s meeting, Jay Leipzig, the county’s planning, housing and community development director, said, “All of the land development approval processes have been completed in the city of Olathe.”

“Rezoning had occurred, a preliminary development plan had been approved and part of that rezoning application also included a public hearing,” he said last week. “All of that work has been completed. The only thing that’s not been completed is the actual approval for (funds) from the city of Olathe and the permit application itself for the building permit.”

Before Thursday’s meeting, however, commissioners received a correcting memo from Olathe officials saying the city has only had high-level pre-application talks with Habitat and that there is no active planning application on it yet.

After an application is filed, a neighborhood meeting will be required, the memo said.

Commissioners noted that their role in approval of the project was limited to the decision to use some of the county’s coronavirus relief money.

The layout of the development and other details are under the city of Olathe’s jurisdiction.

O’Hara had some sharp words, saying, “Olathe was blindsided, the good folks living out in that area were blindsided. We were misled by erroneous staff assertions.”

Chairman Mike Kelly said he didn’t appreciate attacks on staff.

“There may have been some misunderstanding from some,” he responded. “I think it’s important we move toward innovative ideas with the goals we set here and one of those ideas is housing.”

“There are still many steps to go in this process,” Kelly said. “I encourage everyone to stay involved.”

Roxie Hammill is a freelance journalist who reports frequently for the Post and other Kansas City area publications. You can reach her at [email protected]. 

Ben McCarthy contributed to this report.